Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Guitar Goddess

I was in my study last night, writing for what is allegedly your amusement, and Gloria was playing Guitar Hero. Her progress through the game has been ridiculously fast--at least, in comparison to me. I've gotten through the game with sheer desire, really.

Gloria, though, has talent. Serious talent.

If I remember correctly, she'd passed twelve songs in a row on Medium difficulty. First try. And almost every song was pegged in the green on the rock meter when she was finished. No passing songs with the rock meter flashing red. She was nailing them.

She failed Crossroads on Saturday, but last night she passed it on her first try. Sailed through Godzilla, Texas Flood, and Frankenstein on her first try. I was watching her and she has this amazing knack for playing (with absolute precision) the sections where notes go rapidly up and down on the scale.

I warned her about the last two songs. Bitches, I said, especially Cowboys From Hell. It took me three days to pass that song on Medium.

She played it the first time and got blown away. The rhythm section in CFH feels totally erratic at first, and it's very hard to play correctly. She failed it a second time, then a third.

She got this look on her face. I think she Hulked out.

I knew right then that she wasn't going to stop playing that song until she couldn't lift her arms up anymore. It was a battle to the death.

"Sometimes after I've played too much, I wind up playing worse," I said gently. "You might just take a break and try again tomorrow. Sometimes you get better overnight."

I don't think she even heard me. Played it again. Failed.

"Hey, why don't you try Bark at the Moon?" I asked. "That's a great song, much more interesting to play than Cowboys, and it will be a good break." She doesn't want to let go of her deathgrip on CFH, but she exits out and goes into Bark at the Moon.

And kills it. This was the first time she ever played it, and she had the rock meter pegged in the green for THE ENTIRE SONG. It was fantastic. She finished with 82% accuracy, which is just insane. So she didn't just pass the song, she wasn't that far away from four-starring it. On her first try.

That was when the phrase "guitar goddess" first came to mind.

I thought that would be enough, but no, she went back to Cowboys From Hell. Unfinished business. Failed it once, but I saw she was getting better.

Then she passed the song on her next try. Boom goes the dynamite. She's finished the game on Medium.